Let's Fix A Fence

Fresh survey in hand, lot lines designated we began to develop an idea of the type of gates we wanted. Redman Fence installed the original fence, so we're using them to finish up the sides and front. We built the fence we previously had on Idlewild and liked it a lot, but it wasn't right for this house. The 8' part in the back is pretty heavy and since I am working on plumbing we wanted instant gratification. Redman did a picket fence up the street on Idlewild we like, so we soon expect to have a great fence. They seem to be fence craftsman rather than installers. We stuck with a low fence along the east front part in case of future expansion. Homer's Depot in Brandon, after a lot of online ordering struggles, managed to come up with a dual gate opener for the front. Also, we ordered the outward opening arms online at Homer's.

We cleared the fence lines of brush and cleaned off the sections of fence needing repairs. Some time ago somebody drove thru the fence from the Publix side, it was repaired by Redman. Sadly, the wood for the 8 foot part isn't availabe anymore, so we are having some milled. After 3 consecutive weeks of Round-up application to vines growing on the fence - nothing. I was shocked it didn't even faze them. Boy, try to get Roundup to honor their warranty, they don't make it easy. After lopers and the weedeater, the sideline looks much better.

Fence gets started below:

Gimme Some Water

Found this old metal frame in the backyard weeds, so I spruced it up with a wire wheel and paint. Now it holds the well pressure tank relocated from the garage.

That made room inside the garage to installed two 20 gallon sediment filters, be sure to seek the largest ports to maintain the best water pressure. I chose to go with two Big Blue sediment filters as the first step. Next to it you see a temporary installation of a Fleck 7000 carbon filter which is likely overkill.

Next will come a Fleck 7000 water softener. We bought our softener and carbon filter here. There was an old Culligan system we gave away that had a leaking bypass valve and they didn't make parts for it any longer.

We had a Sears softener in our prior home that worked just fine, but I wanted a LOT of water pressure. I was keenly aware of flow rates and potential pressure drops. Plus, we had some long pipe runs from the well up to the house. I'd had more experience with copper pipes thanPVCc, so when I piped the lines from the pump through the first sediment filters I had several joint leaks. Grrrrr. After reading about how to gluePVCc, I redid all that and it was perfect. Sadly, I had leaks at the fittings that screwed in now. The problem was I didn't use enough Teflon tape, plus I slathered on the plumber's goop and now everything is jam up.

We kind of installed in phases since I was a little spooked by the initial leaks. After *blush* three plumb jobs all is well. Except ... we had a head scratcher. I couldn't get the softener to regenerate and after a call to The Water Pharmacy, Frank got me straightened out. Appears we had the two heads reversed on the tanks. I thought I installed the softener, but when I opened the tank and peeked it was the carbon filter. That was an easy fix! I bought all the filters and softeners online. I physically picked the Flecks up down around Sarasota at their shop. Hopefully I will get the softener mix-up squared away this weekend.

The cool thing about Flecks is they have 1 1/4 inch valve bodies; so if you are concerned about maintaining your water pressure, these things have some of the least pressure drop you can get at a reasonable price. I'd guess we installed the filters and softener for about $1,500 bucks and estimate we can flow a good solid 13-17 gpm of treated water. The sediment filters are rated at 20 gpm each (times two). The carbon filter is the bottleneck of the system, but now we get 100% carbon filtered water everywhere compared to the 1-3 gpm filters that go under sink. Basically, a whole house filtration and treatment system is Cool Beans. Try pricing a similar system with a major brand installer and it will be 3-5 grand. Fleck and Autotrol make almost all the heads for softeners, they sell them under lots of different names. I do think Culligan makes their own, but their 1 ¼ inch model is $$$$$.

Oh, I left out the bypass valves on both units for two reasons. The valve bodies are smaller and constrictive hence I feared flow and pressure drop and they tend to leak over time. I guess it's a trade-off. I don't mind whipping up a pipe bypass if a meteor strikes and smashes one of the systems to bits. I'm much faster and pretty leak free aPVCvc now. Can't wait till I try my hand under the house and screw up a bunch of PEX tubing.

Status = still on Honeydo list

I Like Grass

Been preoccupied with the water supply, so the yard is getting only the bare essentials. It's tricky to have nice grass with Tampa's watering restrictions, but we are trying. Since the house came with a pretty nice lawn, we hope to maintain it. The back yard is rougher than the front. You can see the shrubs are kinda out of control and a few weeds popping out. Gave the jasmine a quick mow and it's levelled out. I've been trying yard tonics on this lawn inspired by all Jerry Baker's stuff. There are a lot of them available, but I've only been using (so far) the ones that are basically emulsifiers prior to applying some fertilizer and post-emergant weed control. I can say that the reults we fast and it seemed to help. We need to spray some weed killer but have been hesitant given the ramdom soil boring tests our excavation contractor performs. Most of the shrubs are hanging in there, but the nasty little thorny vines are everywhere. If we get through this summer and still have green grass we will declare it a victory. Going to try spot treatment rather than spraying everywhere for the active weeds. Sure is lots of spanish moss.

Our First Contractor

Meet our excavation contractor who specializes in digging footers. Four of them actually, but he generally just uses the front two. Quite fuel efficient, only noisy sometimes, he can excavate a few cubic feet per minute. He's pretty cheap labor working for bones, but we have some degree of trouble aiming his digging capacity. Nonetheless, he's part of our project team. At least until he's distracted by a squirrel or cat. This work he completed was at our old Idlewild digs, he's rather proud of his accomplishments. Note, he does show up on time and ready for work. In fact, that was one of the things that lead to the decision to hire him. He always seemed to be hanging around anyway. Underfoot might be the right word. He actually included this photo submission as proof that he is a skilled excavator. I think he was actually trained in grass removal, but has a sideline job rearranging earth.

It's Green With A Pointy Roof

And so we begin. I guess we tried to buy this house about 6 years ago with no luck. We ended up buying the little white house near the corner of Idlewild and 13th. We lived there about two years and left the neighborhood. Three or so years later, we are back and finally got the house we liked so much years ago. Thus begins the saga of Our Old House. I think we moved in around March 1st. Project #1 was to install an alarm system. Pretty easy since it's mostly wireless now. Managed to get the alarm installed even before we moved in. Pressure is now off the dog. ;-)